Saturday, October 11, 2014

36 Minutes

"The procedure only takes two minutes to engage the
other persona. For about ten minutes your perceptions, responses and thoughts
will be in your chosen alternate context."

"But I thought you said the whole experience lasts
thirty-six minutes. That's what's written in the brochure."

"It takes a minimum of sixteen minutes to dis-engage
the persona and reinstate full control to your psyche. The distribution of
response times across the normal population indicates a possible maximum of
twenty-nine point eight minutes so we use a buffered target for
disengagement."

"Sounds like a lot of precise nonsense. It can't be any
more serious than the virtual holographic environments on the Starship
Enterprise."

"You signed the release. Did you read it? This is not
game technology. Do you think we would spend the time to screen everyone to
that level before allowing them to participate in the PersonaChange? You know
how much trouble I would get into if they discover I let you try this without
the proper psychoanalytical profiling?"

"Ok, ok, it's a big deal. I'll be good I promise. Now
you've got me scared. What happens if takes thirty point two minutes?"

"Nothing, don’t worry, the margin is at least five
minutes. The original study found there was no risk of sublimation before
thirty-six minutes exposure."

"Subli-what'n? Never mind, I don't want to know. If we
keep dissecting this, I'll never go through with it. What are my choices?"

"Normally you have none. The screener picks one for
you. It's too risky to let people select their persona. They don’t understand
the science involved and get all wound up in wanting to be Joan of Arc or
Albert Einstein, or Hitler or some other horrifying monster. The point is to
let you experience being someone else, not to act out your little private
fantasies of fame, romance or tyrannical conquest. The entire time is
programmed such that the range of stimuli is well within the average person's
self-control. I'll give you two possibilities to pick from. These are real people,
not historical constructs, but I think they provide plenty potential to explore
regions of another person's psychodynamic experience. The first one was
submitted by a former submarine captain in the Soviet Navy, who is an executive
at the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange now. Do you get seasick?"

"That's ridiculous. I'm not going to get seasick from
climbing around the hay loft of some ex-sub jockey. Anyway, I don’t have motion
sickness problems. But how can I appreciate the perceptions of someone else expressed
in a language I don't know, especially when it sounds like a tape recording
played backwards?"

"Look, if I understood all this I'd receive the Nobel
prize for medicine. Trust me, the brain stores all the sensory impressions your
selection experienced throughout his life up to the time of his psychological
download. They tell us that language will not be a problem. Your experience of
the donor's memories and ideas will be associations which are universal
whatever the words and alphabets used."

"Well, I guess working through the adrenalin rush of an
underwater game of cat and mouse with a US Navy attack sub at my heels does sound pretty good."

"You may just as well experience the thrill of riding a
ferry across the Volga when you’re too small to see over the gunnels. Or maybe
you will relive the rapture of selling short a million shares of Yukos oil
stocks and seeing your fortune in rubles quadruple. We can’t dictate the
memories you’ll have as this other person, only that they’ll occur through the context
of their thinking, their instincts, their training, their prejudices, their
loves."

"Yes, well thanks. I read the brochure you know.What's my other choice? Hey, do you have a profile for Phineas Gage?"

"I thought a bit of culture might do you some good.
Uhm, the memories stay with you, you did read that didn't you? Your mind is not
replaced or turned off, just put in its place, you might say. While imagining
you’re the other guy, your own tape recorder is still running, whether it is
forward or backward, however yours might function. So, I thought this
submission from a classical musician would do you some good, if you have the
guts to try it."

"How do you expect me to stay awake? That stuff makes my brain goes into a catatonic state."

"Well, that's interesting. Studies have proven that for
a normally functioning cortex, classical music stimulates higher order
thinking. Helps the old synthetic synaesthesia, if you know what I mean.
Doesn't do much for the brain stem, though, which may explain your response. Do
you know what syneasthesia is?"

"So tell me about this classic musician"

"Synesathesia is the experience of one sensation at the
stimulus of a different one. A color is brought to mind by a sound you hear.
That's the big excitement in what you are about to undergo. The associations of
this other person can be completely different from yours."

"Oh, so whereas I get pretty jazzed when I smell a
rose, ol' Captain Nemo might be barfing all over the place?"

"Yes, and I've never heard it put that elegantly
before. You have a real knack for this you know. I don't think you will be
struggling with staying awake as this musician. He's from India, plays the
santur, a hammered dulcimer, constant striking of strings with little hammers,
gotta be a lot of intensity there. 'Course you get a bonus in experiencing
Hindu beliefs as well. What do you think?"

"Used to play the drums myself. Do you have any blues
musicians? They really know how to live. How about old cowboys? There was this
guy in my hometown called Rattlesnake Pete. He must’ve had some real
adventures. Scared the bejeebers out of me just to look at him, still wearing
his six shooters, SKs, ten gallon hat and a beard down to his belt."

"No, these are your two choices. They are brand new.
All the others are already in the master files and any use of their profile is
tracked. These are preliminary bios. They have not had the full screening so I
can't tell you everything you are going to experience. That should put a little
spice into your insatiable quest for adventure. Speaking of staying awake you
will be lightly sedated to attenuate the effect of unexpected emotional
responses, and to prevent reaction to the restraints. Here slip your arms in
here will you?"

"Restraints?!"

brrzzziipppp!

"You're going to be all hooked up. Swallow this and be
grateful we don’t use an IV. You can't be thrashing about and ripping things
off… you'll end up a psychotic wreck… so you best behave."

"How many of those sticky thingies you gonna weld on my
neck and face anyway?"

"Almost done. Just be grateful this is not ten years
ago when we had to shave each sticky thingie spot. Remember, normally you
have no choice. Someone like you… they would probably match up with an old
pteridologist, a geek who studies ferns twenty hours a day. They have liability
concerns you know. Did you decide?"

"Let’s get going. I vote for Captain Nemonov."

“I'm ready. The lights will go out. Are you ready? If so
push the green button by your right hand."

"What's the red one for? Makes me smaller or
bigger?"

"Emergency stop."

"Oh yeah, we have those on the machines at work. Kinda
spooky to see it here. Why do the lights go out?”

A glazed look in the open eyes but the shallow breathing
begins to subside and the pupils start to focus. Suddenly, “You didn’t tell me
he lost his leg down there!!” …wrestling against the constraints.

“It’s all right! You’re all right! Look: two legs. Relax!…
relax, now. Breathe deep and let it out slow.”

Lights coming up halfway.

“Oh, man… torpedo came loose and crushed his leg! They had
to amputate it above the knee and the wooden leg they gave him never worked. He
always had pain.”

“Here, swallow this.”

gulp… “What was that?”

“It’s an antidote for the sedative combined with something
for traumatic memory. Should keep you from having phantom pain.”

“Phantom pain? It aches! Feels like a sledge hammer's worked
over my leg.”

“Takes a few minutes. Try to rest a bit more.”

“Ok, all signals are flat-lined, looks like you’re back to
normal.”

“Hey!”

Removing the sticky thingies.

“Don’t get your shorts in a knot. Everything is fine. There,
you’re good to go, admiral. Now you can write the next expose on the politics
of Soviet naval high command and win a Pulitzer. Off you go, quick, before
anyone catches us in here.”

God in the Wasteland (The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams) by David Wells

Authentic Christianity by Ray Stedman

Problem of Pain by CS Lewis

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis

How Should We Then Live by Francis Schaeffer

Escape From Reason by Francis Schaeffer

He is There and He is Not Silent by Francis Schaeffer

The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer

New Testament by God

Old Testament by God

Comments on Books

Schaeffer taught me there is no question larger than God: while there are many questions that can challenge my interpretations, there are none that can unhinge my faith.

CS Lewis taught me that real answers to large questions begin with belief in a rational God.

Schaeffer and Lewis are almost exclusively responsible for my inability to accept the premise of relative truth while at the same time not allowing me to get comfortable (lazy) with absolute truth. To explore this with more recent work (1994) see God in the Wasteland by Wells - surprisingly he mentions neither Schaeffer nor Lewis in his bibliography.